Ascension

Recently divorced Astronaut on a routine mission finds himself propelled into space away from earth on an ever accelerating ship. His ability to communicate to earth reduces and he is forced to confront his mortality and who he is.

Veteran NASA Commander, Mark Thompson, an avowed scientific atheist and divorced father of 7 year-old Nikki, leaves for what should be a routine mission testing an experimental plasma engine that could be the missing element in efficient interplanetary travel. There’s one catch to the engine however; the engine is designed only to perpetually accelerate. During a catastrophic failure in low earth orbit on launch trajectory, the crippled ship plummets toward Earth in an all consuming fireball.

In desperation, Commander Thompson flips the ignition on the plasma engine, moments before the craft is beyond salvation. In tense seconds the plasma engine groans to life providing sufficient thrust to break gravity’s draw on the craft, reversing its mortal descent, but now thrusting Commander Thompson to an uncertain fate struggling for survival. As a reluctant Siddhartha, and hurtling into deep space with increasing speed, the purely Scientific Commander Thompson is forced to confront unknown spiritual possibilities and the certain pain of the loss of his daughter.